Rhonan huffs out a laugh as Dilynne threads her arm through his. “Yes, I’m aware, Dilynne. Thank you for the reminder.”
Their conversation fades as Henley grabs Ellis’s hand—Rhonan’s daughter and the flower girl—and leads her back down the aisle.
Which leaves me walking by myself.
Buthell, that’s the way I prefer it and will gladly be the way I’ll keep it for probably the rest of my life—because not everyone gets a happily ever after.
***
I barely lift my glass of whiskey to my lips before Dilynne’s voice startles me from the left. “How are you holding up?”
I shift my eyes to her for a split second, then focus back on the crowd on the dance floor as my pulse climbs. “I’m fine.”
“Make it more believable next time.”
I huff out a laugh. “Fuck you, Dilynne.”
She chuckles. “Yeah, no thank you. I prefer to tango with men that know where the clitoris is.”
Normally, I’d say something equally demeaning to her, but I’m lacking inspiration at this moment. Watching Fletcher and Laney hold each other and laugh as they move across the dance floor is stirring up unpleasant feelings I thought I’d moved past.
“Leave me alone, Dilynne,” I mutter instead, avoiding her eyes so she can get the hint that I’m eager to enjoy my isolation. And not just because the last thing I want to do is talk to anyone right now, but because the last person Ineedto be talking to is Dilynne.
The rose-colored silk clinging to her body is highlighting every curve I shouldn’t appreciate but find myself noticing more and more.
Hell, my dick hasn’t stopped taking notice either, and that’s a big fucking problem.
She rolls her eyes. “Fine. Sue me for wanting to make sure you weren’t going to lock yourself in a coat closet and sulk tonight.” With a flash of her middle finger, she saunters off, swaying her hips in a way that makes me wonder if when Tori left me for her boss, she stole my sanity as well.
Henley comes up behind me and slaps me on the shoulder. “You all right?”
“I’m fine. I just told your sister the same thing. All of you can stop fucking checking on me, okay?”
Rhonan chuckles as he approaches us, glass of bourbon in his hand. Fletcher made sure there was a bottle of Pappy Van Winkle for our friend, since he’d probably need his favorite liquor to get through the evening. “We didn’t send Dilynne over here.”
My eyes meet his as his brow lifts. The fucker thinks he knows something, but I’m hell-bent on keeping my developing problem to myself. “I didn’t say that you did. I just know our friend group and for the past year, everyone has been acting like I might snap and have a mental breakdown at any moment. I’m fucking fine, all right?”
“Spoken like someone who isn’t fine at all,” Henley quips from my side.
I glare in his direction. “Fuck you.”
Rhonan clinks his glass with mine. “Just remember, if Tori hadn’t left with her boss, you’d probably be going through one hell of a divorce right now. You dodged a bullet, my friend.”
“The first ninety-nine times that you’ve reminded me of that were plenty, but thank you for making it an even one hundred. I’ve moved past it pretty well, I think.”
Henley shakes his head. “Look, you can’t be mad at us for checking on you. It’s part of the pact, right?”
Ah, the new pact we agreed to after Fletcher destroyed our first one. During the weeks that followed my dismantled nuptials, the boys and I were forced to face the shortcomings in our friendships. Truth be told, it’s the one thing I’m most grateful for that came out of that turmoil.
It’s rare for people to remain friends for as long as Henley, Rhonan, Fletcher, and I have. We’ve seen each other through almost two decades of life now—college, deployments, dream careers, marriages, births, loss, abuse, and accidents that could have killed us. And yet, we’ve remained in each other’s lives nonetheless.
But that doesn’t mean our friendships have been perfect, which was clearly evident after Fletcher admitted the secrets he’d been keeping from us all.
Since then I’ve witnessed Fletcher be a man I can only aspire to in his career and in his relationship, along with trying to repair the relationship with his father. Henley has also faced his past with the abandonment by his parents, his true feelings for his foster parents, and becoming a father unexpectedly while also falling for his nanny.
Rhonan is quickly on his way to joining them, as evidenced in the way he’s staring at his new neighbor who just so happens to be his daughter’s substitute teacher for a few more days. But Vienna has a few loose ends from her previous life that she needs to deal with first—details that only I am privy to at the moment.
That reminder means I need to keep drinking.